April 20, 2008

Birthday Berry Benham Blowout

Seven years ago today, on a cold, dark night ...early spring morning... Rhys made his triumphant remarkably peaceful entrance into the world.

What's cool about his birthday being April 20, which day he shares with Adolf Hitler, is how completely and utterly his sweet and downright schnookumy personality gives the lie to the notion of any sort of astrological predestination. Suck it, star-gazers!

Easy Bake Oven from Grandma and Grandpa, complete with Rhys' blase face on the box

More Legos than you can shake a stick at, really, from pretty much everybody

Pirate Playmobil figures from awesome Nanny Eryn, who came over and helped us celebrate with her cute girlfriend Aubrey

incredibly delicious strawberry lemon shortcakes: recipe below

Strawberry Lemon Shortcake
Makes 4 shortcakes, serving 4 to 8 people depending on how lavishly you wish to celebrate

Combine in a bowl:

3 cups halved and thinly sliced strawberries

2 to 4 Tbsp sugar, adjusting to account for strawberries' sweetness

Place in refrigerator and allow to macerate (hee hee) while preparing the rest of the recipe.

Combine in a largish bowl:

2 cups flour

4 Tbsp sugar

1-1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Add 4 Tbsp cold butter and cut in with two knives (or a pastry blender, should you be blessed with such an item) until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. This will take a long time and you will start to get annoyed. Persevere.

In a smaller bowl, combine

6 Tbsp half-and-half

2 egg yolks, beaten

1-1/2 tsp. lemon zest (Zesty!)

Stir this mixture into the dry ingredients; dough will be sticky. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead 10 times. (Ten shall be the number thou shalt knead, and the number of the kneading shall be ten. Eleven shalt thou not knead, neither knead thou nine, excepting that thou then proceed to ten. Twelve is right out.)

Divide dough into quarters; pat each into a pleasantly rounded, 3/4" thick form. Arrange on an ungreased baking sheet, leaving 2" between cakes.

Bake at 400 degrees for 8-12 minutes, watching to make sure they don't go from just-right to crispy in a precipitous fashion. Remove from oven, transfer to a cooling rack and allow to rest for 15 minutes while you finish the other accoutrements, which are:

Happy Birthday greetings from Canada. Does it get any better than Lego and cake? We're gearing up for something similar next week (birthday, Lego, cake), when #2 child turns nine -- which I do believe is the anniversary of old Adolf's demise. Odd...